[Rd] utf8.def

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Mon, 19 Apr 2010, Paul Gilbert wrote:

>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Prof Brian Ripley [mailto:ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk]
>> Sent: April 19, 2010 11:20 AM
>> To: Paul Gilbert
>> Cc: r-devel at r-project.org
>> Subject: Re: [Rd] utf8.def
>>
>> On Mon, 19 Apr 2010, Paul Gilbert wrote:
>>
>>> I am trying to check my packages with R-rc
>>
>> And what is that?  Please do note what the posting guide says about
>> giving accurate version information.
>
> R version 2.11.0 RC (2010-04-18 r51771)
>
>>
>>> and latex is failing to find utf8.def.  I presume my latex
>>> installation is defective or too old, or is this file distributed
>>> with R and I just don't have a path set correctly?
>>
>> It is part of the required version of LaTeX. From the NEWS file for
>> 2.11.0:
>>
>>     o	UTF-8 is now used for the reference manual and package
>> 	manuals.  This requires LaTeX '2005/12/01' or later.
>>
>
> I'm a bit confused about the version numbering scheme for latex.
> latex --version reports
> TeX (Web2C 7.4.5) 3.14159
> kpathsea version 3.4.5
>
> Is that LaTeX '2005/12/01' or later?

LaTeX is not tex, and 'latex' is a link to 'tex' usually.

To get the LaTeX version, look further.  E.g  a LaTeX log might say

**refman.tex
(./refman.tex
LaTeX2e <2009/09/24>

(which is the current one, according to the TeXLive 2009 updater).

> Does it make sense that R is building ok, and apparently using utf8.def
> according to the NEWS extract, but my packages don't find it?

Well, did you build the reference manual?  It is not part of the 
default build (e.g. 'make pdf' is needed).

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595